Three Students Win Annual Voice Competition

Since 2018, the Marguerite DePhillips Dougherty Voice Competition has awarded three cash prizes each year to Mary Pappert School of Music voice majors. This year, Luke Leone (M.M. Performance), a student from the studio of Brent Weber won the Graduate Award; Christian Cooper (B.M. Performance), also from Weber’s studio, won the Undergraduate Award, and Giulia Galante Golinelli (A.D. Performance), from the studios of Dr. Meghan DeWald Althouse and Kelley Krepin DeFade, took home the Encouragement Award. Select performances of each winner are linked below.

The Graduate and Undergraduate Award winners receive a $400 cash prize, and the Encouragement Award winner receives a $200 cash prize.

Also competing were five additional voice students:

• Olivia Cuccaro, soprano (M.M. Performance, 2026), studio of Dr. Meghan DeWald Althouse
• Juanita Leal, soprano (A.D. Performance, 2026), studio of Dr. Meghan DeWald Althouse
• Connor Murphy, baritone (B.M. Performance, 2029), studio of Prof. Brent Weber
• Kelli Wright, soprano (M.M. Performance, 2026), studio of Dr. Meghan DeWald Althouse
• Xinxing Xu, soprano (A.D. Performance, 2027), studio of Dr. Meghan DeWald Althouse

Each year, an adjudicator is brought in from outside the University to listen to each contestant sing two pieces, one of which is chosen by the student, the other is chosen by the judge. This year’s judge was soprano Danielle Pastin, who can be seen in the role of Alice Ford in Pittsburgh Opera’s upcoming production of Falstaff. Many thanks to Ms. Pastin.

“There is no shortage of opportunities for our students to compete for awards and scholarships, both within our school and outside,” said David Allen Wehr, Dean of the School of Music. “The three winners of the Dougherty Competition are prime examples of the incredible level of musicianship that we have here at Duquesne, as are others who have recently won the Women’s Advisory Board Scholarship Competition and the Orchestra/Wind Ensemble Concerto Competitions here on campus and the Pittsburgh Concert Society’s Young Artist Competition, held at Carnegie Mellon, to name just a few. It is an honor to be the Dean of a school with such incredibly talented and hard-working students.”

Marguerite DePhillips Dougherty was born in Pittsburgh in 1929. Her interest in music, particularly opera, began as a young woman while taking voice lessons inspired by a love of Puccini’s La bohème and Madama Butterfly. A subsequent grand tour of Europe and time spent living in North Africa cemented her commitment to all things beautiful and artistic. As an unsung patron of the arts, she quietly supported causes throughout her life and at her death in 2015, bequeathed a gift to Duquesne University’s Mary Pappert School of Music to support programs that benefit students pursuing careers in music, especially opera.